China is looking to take a stake of up to 85 percent in a strategically important sea port in Burma, according to documents reviewed by Reuters, in a move that could heighten tensions over China’s growing economic clout in the country.

China has shifted its position in a lengthy dispute with Burma over the building of the $3.6 billion dam, signalling its willingness to abandon the project in exchange for other economic and strategic opportunities in Burma.

Seventeen labourers in Burma’s western Arakan State have been charged with arson, aggravated trespassing and abetting crime for alleged involvement in a fire at a relay station along the Shwe gas and oil pipelines in January.